My wife and I still use Bank of America as our primary checking account and I called them the other day to let them know we’d be traveling and how we might be using our debit card abroad. I don’t plan on using it (we have a Capital One card for purchases) but I wanted to ask them about using ATMs abroad.

The past few days I’ve been researching the best way to exchange money, trying to keep the fees low and the accessibility high. I’ve discussed things with my friends over there and the consensus was that ATM was probably the best way. Between ATM access and us simply paying with our 0% transaction fee Capital One card, we should be paying as little in fees as possible.

Global ATM Alliance

It turns out that Bank of America has partnered with a few international banks to form their “Global ATM Alliance.” When we use a Global ATM Alliance ATM, we avoid a $5 access fee. If we use any old ATM, we would be assessed a $5 access fee. Otherwise, ATM transactions incur a 1% transaction fee to cover the exchange of currency.

Here are the partners in the Global ATM Alliance:

Barclays (United Kingdom)

BNP Paribas (France)

China Construction Bank (China)

Deutsche Bank: (Germany)

Satander Serfin (Mexico)

Scotiabank (Canada)

Westpac (Australia and New Zealand)

Call Your Bank

If you’re traveling abroad, call your bank to see what your international options are. I should have done this from the start, rather than poke around and waste time researching the best option. One simple phone call would’ve yielded the simple advice of “Try to find a Barclays, you can use their ATMs.” The 1% transaction fee, which covers the currency exchange, is probably the leanest you’ll ever find. You will always have to pay a fee to exchange money and it’s either listed as a fee or integrated into an exchange rate that doesn’t match the prevailing rate (this is how credit cards used to “hide” the currency transaction fee and the reasoning behind the foreign transaction fee lawsuit[3]).